Many people need a little extra help in life. Among them are children and the elderly. They do not need cash donations --- they need you. Here are ways to show charity beyond cash to people in your own neighborhood.

CHILDREN

Many children live in single parent homes with mothers who work two jobs and barely earn enough to keep a roof over their heads. You can add joy to that child's life by becoming a Big Brother or Big Sister or by participating in your church outreach program for children. You would become a valued part of that child's life and do something together for a few hours once a week. This would be a long-term commitment.

Another way to show charity toward children is to volunteer as a tutor either in the classroom or in the after-school program. Tutors help the children to become better readers, to learn spelling and vocabulary words, and to understand basic math concepts.

If you attend church, then there are several ways to be charitable beyond cash. Some of these are:

• helping in the daycare center
• helping in the Sunday school
• sewing costumes or painting the props for the holiday play
• working with the children to learn their parts for the play
• helping with summer bible camp
• babysitting during one of the services
• babysitting during choir practice

THE ELDERLY

There may be elderly neighbors on your street who seem to be having a difficult time maintaining the house and yard. We had one such neighbor, a very sweet old lady in her late 80's. She kept to herself and was very quiet. Her backyard grass was knee high. She kept the front yard mowed but she could barely push her old wooden mower as she was skinny as a stick. When one of her church friends picked her up to go grocery shopping one Saturday, several neighbors got together and --- in less than one hour because she only went to the grocery store --- they cut the grass, trimmed the bushes, used a weed eater along the bottom of the fence, ran an edger along the front sidewalk, raked and bagged everything and put it in a neighbor's garage, and then swept the sidewalk and the walkway to her house. When she got home, she walked around the backyard in total amazement for about 10 minutes. Each person donated only 1 hour of time to enable an elderly widow to enjoy her home.

Another way to show charity toward the elderly is to visit with them in retirement homes. Some of them live far from their families and others have relatives who never bother to visit. Visit for as little as an hour once a week or twice a month. Help with shopping or writing a letter, or just sit and listen to the person's stories of his or her life. An act of charity is an act of love.

With today's economy and so many people losing their jobs and their homes, it is difficult for them to continue making cash donations to charity. There are many ways to help others that do not require you to donate money --- charity beyond cash.

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